The Fletchers are Long Island royalty, living on a large estate and reaping the rewards of owning a suspect styrofoam factory built on an equally suspect family history dating back to the 1940s. When Carl Fletcher gets kidnapped in his driveway one morning in 1980, it sets the family on a path of inherited trauma and dysfunction that Taffy Brodesser-Akner explores in her second novel, Long Island Compromise. The overriding element of the book is Brodesser-Akner’s style which bombards readers with episodes of stream-of-consciousness, endless lists, and other sometimes exhausting stylistic choices. Buried in the onslaught of words there are laugh-out-loud moments, deep exploration of family, trauma, wealth, and Jewishness. Readers who enjoy her writing and can wade through the length will enjoy Long Island Compromise. ( )

A Polish Jewish immigrant escaping the Holocaust comes to New York where he eventually accumulates wealth by opening a factory. When he dies suddenly, his son, Carl is called back to the family compound on Long Island to run the business. In 1980, Carl is kidnapped and held for $200,000 ransom which is paid. The kidnapping haunts Carl for the rest of his life, as well as affecting his three children, Nathan, Beamer, and the soon to be born Jenny. And thus the novel embarks on recounting the lives of the siblings, as well as those of the generations that came before, the after effects of the kidnapping and the guiding influences of their wealth.

Cleverly written with touches of wit, the story gets mired down at times with almost a stream of consciousness accounting of their lives and in particular their self loathing. Both historical and contemporary, it is a long novel (almost 500 pages) that touches on American Jewishness, the privilege of wealth, inherited trauma, self sabotaging , family dysfunction, women’s roles. There is a bit of a fairy tale ending and it will be interesting to see what readers think of it. I think this is a book that many will love and about which others will be less enamored.

Thanks to #Netgalley and #randomhouse for the DRC. ( )